Mayor Kaladze Talks Dialogue, Mutual Compromise

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze, the Secretary-General of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said today that talks between the GD and the opposition, as well as a mutual compromise, are necessary to overcome Georgia’s political crisis.

“There is no alternative to dialogue,” highlighted the Tbilisi Mayor, softer in tone than the freshly-elected PM Irakli Garibashvili, who has “categorically” rejected holding “any negotiations related to early elections,” and instead called for the Parliament to be used “as the main platform for discussion.”

Both sides have to “sit at the negotiating table,” noted Kaladze, adding that it is impossible to continue communicating only “through TV channels.” The ongoing political crisis damages Georgia’s development and future, he stressed.

Georgian media also quoted the Tbilisi Mayor as saying that the GD believes the international reactions to the detention of Nika Melia, the United National Movement party chair, to be important.

“These people are the supporters of our country… they expect that we, the government and the opposition, will manage to talk to each other,” Mayor Kaladze highlighted.

Opposition leaders called on the Tbilisi Mayor to be more precise in his statements. European Georgia party’s Gigi Ugulava said “there is no time left” for “ambivalent” remarks. “If he understands that the country is on the verge of splitting apart, and [Prime Minister] Garibashvili and Ivanishvili [GD founder] are leading it toward confrontation, he [Kaladze] should come out and say it [clearly],” he added.

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